GLOBES Scholar Series Debuts Spring 2018

Interdisciplinary Talks at the Intersection of Environment & Society

The GLOBES Scholar Series is co-sponsored by the Environmental Change Initiative, the Eck Institute for Global Health, and the Department of Biological Sciences

Rethinking Failure in Law and ScienceFriday, February 23 at Noon
Hesburgh Library, Carey Auditorium 107
Lecture Co-sponsors: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Intellectual Property Law Society

Sean Seymore, Ph.D., J.D., of Vanderbilt University kicks off the GLOBES Scholar Series on Friday, February 23, with a cross-cutting talk that addresses how changes in patent law due to advancements in science can effectively influence policy. Dr. Seymore is an alumnus of Notre Dame, earning both his Ph.D. in Chemistry and J.D. in Law. His research focuses on patent law and its adaptation through time due to scientific advancements. Professor Seymore is a faculty advisor to the Vanderbilt Law Review and an elected member of the American Law Institute. See the Globes Flyer Sean Seymore.

The Control of River Blindness: an African Success Story
Friday, April 13 at Noon
Hesburgh Library, Carey Auditorium 107
Lecture Co-Sponsor: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences

Vincent Resh, Ph.D., is a professor of aquatic ecology at the University of California-Berkeley who has studied rivers and wetlands around the globe with the goal of improving human health and environmental quality. A renowned researcher and teacher, Resh received the Award of Excellence from the Society for Freshwater Science and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California.

River Blindness (Onchocerciasis) is a human disease caused by a roundworm and transmitted by biting black flies. By the 1970's, it resulted in blindness rates sometimes exceeding 30% in communities living along the rivers of West Africa. Because these were the most fertile areas for agriculture, food security was threatened as large tracts of land were abandoned due to the disease. The Onchocerciasis Control Programme organized by the World Health Organization utilized a successful pesticide-drug distribution effort that resulted in near eradication of the disease in West Africa and resettlement of more than 66 million acres of land for agricultural production. Globes Flyer Vincent Resh.

Genese Sodikoff, PhD, is a cultural anthropologist from Rutgers University-Newark. Her talk discusses the challenges of epidemiology within rapidly transforming landscape and genetics. Professor Sodikoff is interested in the political economy of biodiversity loss, conservation, and restoration, labor and rain forest conservation in Madagascar, and the biotic and cultural problem of extinction. She is the author of Forest and Labor in Madagascar: From Colonial Concession to Global Biosphere (Indiana University Press, 2012). She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2005.

"Climate change and our technological inputs into ecosystems have created novel risks to human health. Tracking down the mysterious causes of new or resurgent diseases often requires information about human-animal interactions in outbreak zones. Recent anthropological studies of zoonotic disease have yielded vital insights into the evolving ecologies of health. An ethnographic focus that moves beyond the human to include the habits of other species living in humanized environments can identify health risks. It can also raise new questions about transformations in disease dynamics," said Sodikoff of the upcoming lecture. Globes Seminar Genese Sodikoff Rev